Announcement

Quod and Cignifi Announce Partnership in Brazil

October 30, 2018

Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Boston, USA – Quod, Brazil’s newly established positive credit bureau, and Cignifi, a leading US fintech company, announced today a partnership that has the potential to significantly improve access to financial services for millions of underserved consumers across Brazil.

The partners will collaborate to launch the country’s first online platform that will provide credit, marketing, fraud and other insights on underserved consumers and SMEs using alternative telecom data combined with a proprietary artificial intelligence and machine learning platform.

Quod and Cignifi are in advanced discussions with mobile operators and retailers to bring this data platform to market, and by combining alternative data with Quod’s positive approach to credit scoring, the platform will enable consumers and micro-entrepreneurs to gain access to a broad range of credit products and services, while opening an untapped new customer base to lenders.

“Quod’s mission is to connect consumers and businesses in a brand-new way. Approximately 30% of Brazilian consumers are unbanked, so we need an innovative, secure and tested approach to bring these consumers to the credit market while minimizing uncertainty for lenders” said Rodrigo Abreu, Quod’s CEO.

“We are very excited to help introduce a positive credit approach to Brazil,” said Jonathan Hakim, Cignifi’s CEO. “The main goal of this partnership is to connect people, companies and financial institutions in a transparent and efficient way and allow all parties to make better, more informed credit and marketing decisions.”

The Quod-Cignifi Platform will provide substantial coverage on millions of new-to-credit customers in Brazil. The emergence of a Positive Credit Bureau is significant because it rewards consumers for their positive, responsible use of credit, rather than simply exclude them based on any potential negative credit events in their record. Customer privacy and compliance are also major priorities of the Quod/Cignifi Partnership and will be rigorously protected by use of anonymized data and customer opt-ins.

From the business perspective, the initial roll-out of this partnership will address three of the most immediate challenges faced by telco operators:

High initial customer default risk and fraud exposure

The challenge of contacting customers who have defaulted and have no valid contact information

The difficulties of effectively processing and utilizing the vast amount of data Telcos generate

Mobile operators will also benefit from advanced customer lifecycle tools to help minimize churn and increase lifetime customer value, and they will also gain access to highly granular market share insights of their customer base. The partnership’s product offerings will include credit insights to complement Quod’s positive scores, fraud scores to screen credit applications and on-line transactions, and propensity indicators to enable digital marketing initiatives.

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About Quod

Quod is a data management fintech company created by Brazil's five largest banks in 2017, to focus on risk management, fraud prevention and big data products and solutions. The company started operations by the end of 2018, and will serve clients in all economic sectors, including financial institutions, insurers, retailers, telecommunication operators and small to medium-sized companies, among others. Quod values data privacy and protection, respects consumers and is committed to improving Brazil’s credit environment, by promoting financial education and providing solutions for better informed companies and individuals.

About Cignifi

Cignifi is a leading tech innovator in emerging market financial services and alternative data analysis who is changing the way previously underserved consumers can access financial services. Cignifi’s digital marketing and scoring platform provides comprehensive credit risk and marketing scores using mobile phone and other data. Cignifi is backed by leading venture investors and led by a management team with significant data analytics, financial services and global business experience. Cignifi is headquartered in Boston, USA, with offices in Brazil, Mexico, Singapore, India, Indonesia, and Bangladesh.

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